Big Ten

While Jim Delany did a great job of making $s for the conference a couple things will cloud his legacy. Namely some of the schools he championed to expand were mostly about geography and not a good fit, Rutgers & Maryland, and his man crush with the Rose Bowl that made him a vocal opponent of the playoffs for so long.

I have a suggestion for a strong candidate, Oliver Luck. He is native of CLE which gives him experience in the Conference foot print plus he has a ton of Sports Admin experience:

- Currently the CEO and Commissioner of the XFL.
- Member of the 1st CFP Committee.
- Director of Intercollegiate Athletes at West Virginia University (WVU),
- Executive with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in charge of the organization's regulatory functions.
- The first President and GM of the Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer (MLS)
- Chief Executive Officer of the Houston Sports Authority
- League President of NFL Europe

Played at WVU and for 5 years in the NFL. A finalist to be a Rhodes Scholar, (which will make the University Presidents happy.)
 
I'm fine with the Maryland addition. While they've been on the lower end of the conference in football, they compete in other aspects and have the potential to be a player in football if they make the right hire. Rutgers was an abomination though.
 
The only positive to adding Rutgers was the increase in TV money, which helps the conference stay competitive with the SEC in terms of program spending. Unfortunately, that is a huge part of college football. A necessary evil. In a perfect world, Notre Dame or Mizzou would have been invited instead.
 
The only positive to adding Rutgers was the increase in TV money, which helps the conference stay competitive with the SEC in terms of program spending. Unfortunately, that is a huge part of college football. A necessary evil. In a perfect world, Notre Dame or Mizzou would have been invited instead.

It should have been Notre Dame but that is never going to happen for football. Not a fan of Mizzou, they are Maryland in the Midwest and getting ready to spend time off the grid on probation. If Kansas could ever get their football act together they would be a good addition. Great hoops, strong secondary sports, solid academics, and a nice market very close by in KC; that football program though...
 
Mizzou has established rivalries with Nebraska and Illinois as well. Makes them a good cultural fit. Kansas wouldn't be a bad pick all things considered, but the Big Ten West has not been good. Adding a decent team like Mizzou (discipline aside) would have helped.
 
Delaney going away gives me some semblance of hope that they won't screw it up if they ever expand to 16.

I dig the Jayhawks for basketball, but I don't see how they can ever be legitimate in football without taking away from somebody else in their vicinity. There's a very finite level of success that can be attained IMO between them, Kansas State, Iowa, Iowa State and Nebraska. Too limited of a localized recruiting pool, and too much dependency on making a splash nationally to get guys to come to the heart of corn country.

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If this league ever expands again, unless Notre Dame wants in (I doubt it), it needs to be some combination of Kansas, Mizzou, Oklahoma and Texas.

Thank God Delaney's on the way out. If he could oversee an expansion to 16 you'd see some more East coast schools that offer little besides market share.

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Delaney going away gives me some semblance of hope that they won't screw it up if they ever expand to 16.

I dig the Jayhawks for basketball, but I don't see how they can ever be legitimate in football without taking away from somebody else in their vicinity. There's a very finite level of success that can be attained IMO between them, Kansas State, Iowa, Iowa State and Nebraska. Too limited of a localized recruiting pool, and too much dependency on making a splash nationally to get guys to come to the heart of corn country.

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You can say the same thing about Minnesota in relation to Wisconsin, Michigan State and Michigan, Northwestern and Illinois, or Indiana and Purdue.
 
You can say the same thing about Minnesota in relation to Wisconsin, Michigan State and Michigan, Northwestern and Illinois, or Indiana and Purdue.

I agree that the dynamic is similar, but there's actually a few recruiting areas in those states that have solid talent (Chicagoland, metro Detroit, Twin Cities, Indy). There's virtually no power five talent in those states on the plains, and I'd argue it's a lot harder to get a kid from out of state to those schools than to most of the ones you mentioned. I believe that's why Nebraska has been a pretty big dud so far. No prop 48/JUCO studs like the old days, and I don't think they have nearly the Texas recruiting power that they had in their Big XII days.

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ND will never join a conference for football as long as the Irish have their own TV deal. If BIG ever expands again it needs to look South, either raid the ACC again or to the Big 12 ( Texas and Okie ) or even possibly Houston.
 
I agree that the dynamic is similar, but there's actually a few recruiting areas in those states that have solid talent (Chicagoland, metro Detroit, Twin Cities, Indy). There's virtually no power five talent in those states on the plains, and I'd argue it's a lot harder to get a kid from out of state to those schools than to most of the ones you mentioned. I believe that's why Nebraska has been a pretty big dud so far. No prop 48/JUCO studs like the old days, and I don't think they have nearly the Texas recruiting power that they had in their Big XII days.

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I see the talent in the South is kind of like oil. One decade we're out, run dry except when new tech makes it cheaper than the import and then we have more than we know what to do with.

School and quality and athletic opportunity is still a very deep untapped well down there. There will always be developable, 4 year players for teams that need them. We're seeing players dominate at the combine that weren't recruited by the Ala and Ohio Sts.... FIll in with enough knowledgible, solid hard working 4-year locals to mitigate any major holes in the line-up and you've got a team that can compete.
 
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ND will never join a conference for football as long as the Irish have their own TV deal. If BIG ever expands again it needs to look South, either raid the ACC again or to the Big 12 ( Texas and Okie ) or even possibly Houston.

Back in the day, that would be correct if you are talking on financial terms only.

Now with the BigTen network and such, they would be better of $$ wise in joining.

Now, they would be at the whims of the league though for scheduling and different things instead of having it their way now.
 
ND has a pretty sweet deal with the ACC right now. They would have to get a significantly better deal from the B1G or the ACC would need to implode for them to leave.
 
If ND ever joins it will be ACC as that will give them best chance to win a league title as right now it is Clemson and nobody else in ACC. Big 10 has tunnel vision right now and if they expand they want Oklahoma and Texas as that would stabilize the West Division in football for sure. This would probably only happen if Big 12 were to dissolve and Power 5 became Power 4 with league title games becoming the quarterfinals. Purdue would go back to East. West would be good with Sooners, Horns, Huskers, Badgers and Hawkeyes fighting it out most years. NW, Illini and Gophers round it out. Buckeyes, Michigan, Sparty and Penn St would be holding the flag for the East. That would make for some great Big 10 title games, huh?
 
Well, since 2000 tOSU has scheduled and played the following OOC home/home series:
UCLA
Washington
Cal
NC State
Miami
Oklahoma
Texas
USC
Va Tech

Alabama since 2000 OOC home/home series:
UCLA
Oklahoma
Penn State

'Bama played a lot of decent opponents but these were "neutral" site games in either Dallas or Atlanta. The only time they ventured north of the Mason/Dixon line at all since 2000 was 1 time to play Penn State. tOSU also had a home/home w/ Vandy when Franklin was there get cancelled by Vandy and they gave UC a game in Cincinnati, could you see 'Bama giving say Houston a game at NRG Stadium?
 
'Bama & tOSU are the signature programs for their respective conferences plus many point to Saban's scheduling philosophy as the reason why we have fewer home/home OOC games in the SEC. Add in the signature event of southern football in the 2010s, cupcake Saturday in late November, and the most prominent football program in the SEC has lead to some of the most despised practices of the sport.
 
'Bama & tOSU are the signature programs for their respective conferences plus many point to Saban's scheduling philosophy as the reason why we have fewer home/home OOC games in the SEC. Add in the signature event of southern football in the 2010s, cupcake Saturday in late November, and the most prominent football program in the SEC has lead to some of the most despised practices of the sport.
Would like to see an end to the FCS scheduling but it is a complete myth from Big 10 fans that the SEC doesnt schedule tough OOC games. And not all are neutral site games like many believe.
 
The big programs schedule fewer. It's not really a myth unless you think people believe the SEC never schedules tough OOC, which is pretty much a strawman
 
Texas A&M is at Clemson, Georgia is playing ND, LSU is at Texas. Florida has Miami and Florida St......Pretty much every big one but Bama....

It was said on here last year quite a bit, until I presented actual schedules. Bama deserves crap for their cupcake schedule and they all deserve crap for their FCS teams but it is a myth they dont schedule home and homes
 
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